3 American students arrested in Egypt's Tahrir Square

Violent demonstrations in Egypt have entered a fourth day with protesters calling for an end to military rule and a "million-man march" on Cairo's Tahrir Square. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

?

?

By NBC News

Three American students were arrested Monday evening during protests in Tahrir Square, a spokeswoman for The American University in Cairo told NBC News.

Luke Gates, a student at Indiana University from Bloomington, Ind., Gregory Porter, a student at Drexel University from Glenside, Pa., and Derrik Sweeney, a student at Georgetown University from Jefferson City, Mo., are being held at the Abdeen police station in Cairo, reported NBC.?

The three are currently studying abroad at The American University in Cairo. University spokeswoman Morgan Roth said the university is in?"fact-finding mode" about the detentions at the moment.

Read more about the events in Egypt

"I don't have specifics on the charges they are facing or if they have been formally charged. I just know that they are being detained," Roth told NBC.?The American University is working with the U.S. Embassy in Cairo to monitor the students' well-being, she said.

NBC's Richard Engel said Egyptian television was reporting three American citizens were arrested after being seen throwing fire bombs from the roof of a building belonging to the American University near Tahrir Square, and that the U.S. Embassy was investigating.

The State Department has not yet been able to gain consular access to the students.

The students' parents were notified Tuesday morning of the arrests. Drexel University, Gregory Porter's school, released a statement saying "administrators are in contact with Porter's parents and are working with authorities at the American University in Cairo and the U.S. Embassy to have Porter released and returned home safely."

The two other students' universities have been notified of the arrests as well.

Meanwhile, Egyptians converged on Tahrir Square on Tuesday in response to a call for a so-called "million-man march" as protests against the country's military rulers entered a fourth day. Read full coverage here.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/22/8954375-three-american-students-arrested-in-egypts-tahrir-square

lord monckton lord monckton andy kaufman october 21 2011 ohio ohio john beck

Critical molecules for hearing and balance discovered

Monday, November 21, 2011

Researchers have found long-sought genes in the sensory hair cells of the inner ear that, when mutated, prevent sound waves from being converted to electric signals ? a fundamental first step in hearing. The team, co-led by Jeffrey Holt, PhD, in the department of otolaryngology at Children?s Hospital Boston, and Andrew Griffith, MD, PhD, of the NIH?s National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), then restored these electrical signals in the sensory cells of deaf mice by introducing normal genes.

The study paves the way for a test of gene therapy to reverse a type of deafness, to be conducted by Holt and Swiss collaborators. Findings appear in the November 21 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Sound waves produce the sensation of hearing by jiggling protruding hair-like structures on sensory hair cells in the inner ear. Scientists have long believed that the hair cells carry a protein that converts this mechanical motion into electrical signals. While similar proteins have been identified for other senses ? taste, smell, sight ? researchers had been unable to find the critical protein required for hearing, in part because of the difficulty of getting enough cells from the inner ear to study.

?People have been looking for more than 30 years,? says Holt, also a member of the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children?s Hospital Boston. ?Five or six possibilities have come up, but didn?t pan out.?

Holt, Griffith and colleagues found that two related proteins, TMC1 and TMC2, are essential for hearing. They make up gateways known as ion channels, which sit atop the hair-like projections (called stereocilia) and let electrically charged molecules (ions) move in to the cell, generating an electrical signal that ultimately travels to the brain.

The gene for TMC1 was previously shown by Griffith and NIDCD-funded collaborators to be mutated in both mice and humans with hereditary deafness. TMC2, the new study found, seems to have a redundant function and may compensate if TMC1 is defective.

The study also found that the same defects affect sensory hair cells in the vestibular system, which underlies the sense of balance. Although TMC1 mutations cause only hearing loss, not balance problems, in humans, mice with defects in both TMC1 and TMC2 are deaf and fail balance tests requiring them to navigate a rotating rod.

The investigators then engineered an adenovirus to carry normal copies of TMC1 or TMC2 into the inner-ear hair cells of mice that had mutations in both genes. Using special techniques developed in Holt?s lab, they recorded electrical responses to noise in the sensory hair cells when either TMC1 or TMC2 was added back ? where before there had been none. ?This is the first time anything like this has been done,? says Holt.

But does restoring the electrical response translate into restoration of hearing? Holt and collaborators at the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland recently received a $600,000 grant for a gene-therapy trial in mice. The researchers will deliver genes to the inner ear and measure whether electrical signals can be detected in the 8th cranial nerve and whether the animals respond to sound. EPFL will supply newer, safer gene-delivery vectors for testing that could potentially be developed for human trials.

According to the NIDCD, about 1 in 300 to 500 newborns are born deaf or hard-of-hearing, and it?s believed that about half of cases have genetic causes. About 60 genes, including TMC1, are known to be associated with human deafness.

###

Children's Hospital Boston: http://www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom

Thanks to Children's Hospital Boston for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 67 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115360/Critical_molecules_for_hearing_and_balance_discovered

x factor auditions 2011 x factor auditions 2011 redacted redacted banned books 30 rock anna faris

'US won't be happy': Taliban, Pakistan talk peace

ISLAMABAD ?? Pakistan's Taliban movement, a major security threat to the country, is holding exploratory peace talks with the U.S.-backed government, a senior Taliban commander and mediators said Monday.

1. Only on msnbc.com

   1. Charla Nash reveals ?beautiful? new face
   2. Retailers hope holiday shoppers defy economy
   3. Counting China's wild pandas
   4. How Huguette Clark's millions were spent
   5. Telecommuting a bad option for stressed parents
   6. Economy makes holiday job a special gift
   7. Wood?s sister: Like having to ?relive her death?

The United States, the source of billions of dollars of aid vital for Pakistan's military and feeble economy, is unlikely to look kindly on peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it has labeled a terrorist group.

Past peace pacts with the TTP have failed to bring stability, and merely gave the umbrella group time and space to consolidate, launch fresh attacks and impose their austere version of Islam on segments of the population.

'Difficult'
The discussions are focused on the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border and could be expanded to try to reach a comprehensive deal.

A senior Taliban commander told NBC News that the talks were in "an initial and difficult stage." He added that the while the negotiations had not yet achieved any tangible results, they were "going in the right direction."

The Taliban, who are close to al-Qaida, made several demands, including the release of prisoners.

A peace deal between the authorities and the Pakistani Taliban could represent the best hope of ending years of fighting that has killed thousands of security personnel and civilians.

But it is unclear whether the preliminary talks will gain traction or if the Pakistani Taliban are unified enough to actually strike a deal. It is also uncertain whether a deal could last.

However, Washington's push for a peace deal with the Afghan Taliban could make it difficult to oppose an agreement in Pakistan.

"Yes, we have been holding talks. We will see if there is a breakthrough," a senior Taliban commander, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters.

"Right now, this is at the South Waziristan level. If successful, we can talk about a deal for all the tribal areas," he said, referring to Pashtun lands along the Afghan border.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil (on this page)

The TTP, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban movement fighting U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan, is entrenched in the unruly areas along the porous border.

Pakistan has come under pressure to eradicate militancy since U.S. special forces in May killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he had apparently been living for years.

Pakistan's government and military have said they had no idea bin Laden was in Pakistan and have yet to explain the intelligence gap.

The operation enraged Pakistan's military, which branded it a violation of sovereignty and then reduced cooperation on intelligence critical for U.S. efforts to stabilize the region as it winds down combat operations in Afghanistan.

"The U.S. won't be happy," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban. "If there is less pressure from Pakistan on the militants then they (the Pakistani Taliban) will turn their attention to Afghanistan."

Video: Clinton to Pakistan: Stop harboring terrorists (on this page)

Speculation on peace talks has been rife since the government said in a September all-party conference on a crisis in relations with the United States that it would attempt negotiations with militants to bring peace.

"We never wanted to fight to begin with," said the senior Taliban commander. "Our aim was to rid Afghanistan of foreign forces. But the Pakistani government, by supporting America, left us no choice but to fight."

Since bin Laden's death, the TTP has vowed to attack Western targets abroad.

Slideshow: After the raid: Inside bin Laden's compound (on this page)

The government delegations that held preliminary talks with the Pakistani Taliban over roughly the past six months have included former civilian and military officials and tribal elders, the intelligence officials and a senior militant commander said in recent interviews with The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

The TTP was formed in 2007 and is blamed for many of the suicide bombings across nuclear-armed Pakistan, one of the world's most unstable but strategically important countries.

Audacious attacks
Its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a U.S. drone aircraft missile strike in northwest Pakistan in 2009.

The group has staged audacious attacks on government installations, even army headquarters near the capital, and the violence has also killed many civilians.

While its activities have been almost entirely confined to Pakistan, the TTP has shown an interest in expanding its range under the banner of al-Qaida.

Pakistan's list of banned words met with ridicule

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009, carried out by a Jordanian national, killed seven Central Intelligence Agency employees.

In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with Mehsud, a stark illustration of growing links between the Pakistani insurgents and foreign militants.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square last year told a U.S. court he got bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.

The TTP staged a series of attacks to avenge bin Laden's death. They claimed responsibility for an attack on a naval base in Pakistan's biggest city and commercial capital Karachi in May which embarrassed the powerful military.

Reuters, The Associated Press, NBC News and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45383178/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

ahava kelly cutrone kelly cutrone bill buckner dancing with the stars 2011 dwts christmas island

Alberta RCMP investigate abuse allegations at bible college

CALGARY ? RCMP are investigating allegations of abuse dating back several decades at a Central Alberta Bible college.

Mounties in Three Hills, Alta., began probing the allegations this week after administrators at Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills directed the RCMP to rumours swirling on the Internet.

RCMP Sgt. Tim Taniguchi told the Calgary Herald Friday night that the investigation is very new, but the allegations are not.

"It's an historical abuse case, but I am not sure of the circumstances of the abuse," said Taniguchi. "It's with the RCMP and the local detachment is looking into it."

It's a difficult time at the Christian college, said Linda Brinks, a member of its board.

"Nobody wants to hear that maybe hurtful things happened to anybody and any time and there's a sense of grief that there's people out there maybe carrying pain around and have for a long time," said Brinks, who has been appointed by the board as a contact person for the public and other potential abuse victims.

Brinks would not speak to the number of possible victims, although one website that is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the allegations says there are as many as 80 cases and the abuse includes physical, emotional and sexual allegations.

"Our desire is to be as open and transparent as possible and we're not desiring to cover anything up, but so far they are just allegations," Brinks said Friday.

She said school officials are confident in the investigation.

"The RCMP are the right people right to now investigate," she said. "We trust that anyone who is still hurting will get some closure in their life whether through pressing criminal charges or through dialogue with the school. We hope the investigation will provide answers to questions about who was abused and who was guilty of it."

President Mark Maxwell posted a letter on the institute's website stating the alleged incidents date back several decades.

"The individuals purportedly involved are no longer at Prairie," reads the letter, dated Tuesday, Nov. 15. "Nevertheless, we feel it is appropriate to respond and to emphasize our commitment to seeking truth and transparency."

The president said in an interview he's not aware of any criminal activity in the school's history, but he believes the online allegations seem "real enough" to warrant concern about the school's past.

"I want to know the truth," said Maxwell, who has been the school's president for about a year and a half. "I want to know who's been injured. I want to know who did it, and help bring that to resolution."

Catherine Darnell, 56, started the Facebook group in September for alumni of PBI, located 125 kilometres northeast of Calgary. Darnell says that as a child, she suffered sexual, physical and emotional abuse from staff at the non-denominational Protestant school, which for many years was known for its strictness and insularity.

"(I started the group) to open up dialogue regarding abuse and hopefully to get people to come forward if they've been impacted," said Darnell, who now lives outside Fergus, Ont. She says her abusers are now dead.

Linda Fossen, a Prairie alumnus who has written about being abused by her father, who was a student at the school, says she has heard from more than 80 victims, mostly staff kids who were sexually abused.

Earlier this week, Fossen, who now lives in Florida, filed her own a complaint about the abuse with Three Hills RCMP.

In addition to the Facebook page, Fossen keeps a website in which she has posted all the correspondence she has exchanged with school officials.

In one posting dated Nov. 11 she told Maxwell "the game was over" and she was going to make the allegations public.

"Like Penn State University has found, there is a day of reckoning," she wrote. "The day for Prairie Bible Institute survivors has come."

The RCMP's Taniguchi said Friday he didn't have any information on the number of victims.

Last week, Maxwell put the content of the Facebook group on a flash drive and walked it across the street to the Three Hills RCMP detachment. The school put a statement on its website Tuesday saying it had invited RCMP to investigate and would co-operate fully, an effort to "achieve healing and reconciliation" if abuse has occurred.

The move has prompted more fiery discussion on the Facebook page in question. Fossen believes giving the Facebook page to police is "a veiled attempt at intimidating the survivors, because now everyone knows their information is subject to being downloaded."

Throughout the debate, some people commenting have cautioned against discussing such weighty matters in a public forum where anybody can listen in. "I think it's had some good impact and some bad," said Darnell of the group. "There's been a lot of very upsetting comments made about individuals . . . I think it's caused a lot of people to feel revictimized, all the more reason to shut down. On the other hand, it just brought it out into the open."

Brinks said she is available to speak with anyone who feels they were victimized at the school.

"My role is to be a contact person for anyone who might want to tell their story," she said. "Maybe there's people out there who never had a chance to make it right and I grieve for those still suffering from something that happened so long ago."

It remains unclear to what extent abuse occurred at Prairie, and Maxwell says the school needs more facts to go on. "I'm looking at it going, If there's real stuff here, we have to get to it. If there's no real stuff, then the people that are saying all this (on Facebook) need to be called on that," said Maxwell.

Both Darnell and Fossen want Prairie to involve a Virigina-based organization that deals with child abuse in church groups, but the school has balked at that option. "The biggest reason not to go there is they're not Canadians, so they don't know Canadian law," said Maxwell.

The institute, founded by L.E. Maxwell, first opened on Oct. 9, 1922. Since then, the Christian post-secondary institute has expanded to include Canada's oldest Bible College, Prairie Bible College, known for its missionary training program, as well as the Prairie College of Applied Arts & Technology and the Prairie School of Mission Aviation.

According to its website, the bible-based institute has helped prepare over 17,000 students to become "faithful servants of Jesus Christ," many who have worked in more than 114 countries worldwide. Its mission is to serve the Church and "live according to the biblical standards laid down by Jesus Christ."

Calgary Herald

dtetley@calgaryherald.com

? Copyright (c) Postmedia News

Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F229/~3/aw3NYgB_cGc/story.html

rosh hashanah amanda palmer listeria monocytogenes chipper jones chipper jones jordan jefferson paula abdul

Romney Rallies in New Hampshire (TIME)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/164446809?client_source=feed&format=rss

rickross uganda rick ross black hawk down black hawk down dennis the menace dylan ratigan

Police clear Oakland protest camp without incident (Reuters)

OAKLAND, California (Reuters) ? Police on Sunday cleared anti-Wall Street protesters from a vacant lot and public park in Oakland, California, a day after they had erected a tent camp to replace one torn down by authorities.

There were no reports of arrests or violence.

Previous unrest surrounding protests in Oakland, a West Coast Occupy hot spot, helped rally support nationwide for the Occupy Wall Street movement launched in New York in September to protest economic inequality and excesses of the U.S. financial system.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said the cost of the encampments to the city was growing and putting a strain on already fragile resources including police, public works and other staff.

Quan said in a statement that Sunday's raid was necessary and that public safety and protecting downtown businesses from vandalism are the city's priority.

"We will not tolerate lodging on public property, whether in parks or open space; it is illegal," Quan said.

Oakland police spokeswoman Johanna Watson said the protesters were "very cooperative" and police encountered no resistance.

A previous effort to remove the protesters' camp in October sparked clashes between protesters and police that wounded a former U.S. Marine and turned into one of the most violent episodes linked to the Occupy movement.

The protesters had pitched tents in the lot and adjacent park on Saturday. Police less than a week ago dismantled a similar protest camp nearby.

Oakland protesters have announced plans to shut down all West Coast ports on December 12 in coordination with like-minded protesters in Los Angeles.

To the north, two University of California, Davis police officers have been placed on administrative leave while the school investigates the apparent use by campus police of pepper spray against seated student protesters, the university said on Sunday.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and David Bailey)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/us_nm/us_protests_westcoast

joe paterno lung cancer john tucker must die uk basketball iowa state faroe islands faroe islands corso

Law limitations may protect child abusers in U.S. (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? High-profile accusations of child sex abuse in the United States have refocused attention on laws that are meant to protect the rights of the accused but in fact can help pedophiles escape prosecution.

Experts say statutes of limitation that prevent criminal charges being brought after a certain number of years may need to be reconsidered in the sex abuse of children because victims typically need years before they are able to come forward.

The latest case in the spotlight involves an assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University in the New York state. The coach, Bernie Fine, has declared his innocence and he was cleared in a university investigation in 2005.

Like the child sex abuse scandal rocking Penn State University football, the Syracuse accusation involves the coach of a highly profitable sports program in a university town with a fervent fan base. By extension, the cases have rattled college sports programs across the country.

Syracuse police on Thursday reopened an investigation into Fine when a second accuser came forward.

The first accuser, Bobby Davis, now 39, first reported in 2003 that Fine fondled him "hundreds of times" from when he was 11 until he was 27, telling the television network ESPN that police dropped his case because the statute of limitations had expired.

But in the wake of the Penn State scandal, Davis's stepbrother Mike Lange, 45, came forward in an interview with ESPN to say Fine fondled him 15 to 20 times when he was a boy.

The TV interviews led police to bring both accusers in for questioning on Thursday. Fine was placed on administrative leave by the university pending the investigation.

"Simply put, these allegations are patently false in every aspect," Fine said in a statement on Friday. "I am confident that, as in the past, a review of these allegations will be discredited and restore my reputation."

The more serious accusation of first-degree abuse, which involves penetration or oral contact, carries no limitation but the acts described by Davis and Lange would constitute second-degree sexual abuse and must be prosecuted within five years of the most recent act under New York state law.

Several proposed laws in the state legislature would extend that limit, including one sponsored by Assemblyman Gary Pretlow that would put it at 30 years.

The Syracuse incident will "absolutely" reinvigorate his push to get the bill passed, Pretlow said from the state capital Albany.

"If something is close to the Albany mindset, as Syracuse is, then it will resonate much more," Pretlow said.

"Many times, people are too embarrassed to come forward because of the way society treats victims of sexual attacks. If people do come forward later in life, the person who did it should be punished."

Robert Shoop, a Kansas State University expert on the sexual abuse of children, advocates for a law that would eliminate statutes of limitation in all states.

"The down side of eliminating a statute of limitations is that the further you get from the event the more difficult it is for both sides to make their case. However, by eliminating a person's right to bring a case forward I think you're doing more harm than the risk to the defendant," Shoop said.

"There's always a lot of discussion in the midst of a hot issue like this one. We'll see six months from now if those conversations are still going on."

Even if the statute of limitations prevents a prosecution, investigators might want to interview the accusers in case there might be other, younger victims whose cases are still valid, said attorney Matthew Galluzzo, a former Manhattan prosecutor of sex crimes who is now in private practice.

But he cautioned against overreacting to the cases in the news because of the risk that fabricators might "smell deep pockets at the university."

"Right now it would be very easy for some kid who was at Penn State to make up some stories and get a big settlement," Galluzzo said. "There's definitely a risk for that and this is definitely why we have a statute of limitations."

(Additional reporting by Dan Wiessner in Albany; Editing by Mark Egan and John O'Callaghan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111119/us_nm/us_usa_crime_coach_laws

mashed potato recipe mashed potato recipe cranberry sauce green bay packers packers la auto show pumpkin cheesecake